Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Manchester Evening News article 18 November 2016

THIS
is a milestone year for choral group St George’s Singers of Poynton. The choir was formed 60 years ago, with 23 members. Today it has over 100, drawn
from Cheshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, and is recognised
as one of the most innovative in the north, under musical director Neil Taylor.

It’s celebrating with major concerts in Manchester and Stockport, including
(on April 22 next year at the Royal Northern College of Music) great choral
works from the past 600 years, and (on June 25) Verdi’s Requiem with Stockport
Symphony Orchestra and the Sheffield Chorale, at Gorton Monastery.

But first there’s the German Requiem by Brahms, on 26th
November at the RNCM, when SGS are joined by the Northern Chamber Orchestra and
international star soloists Elizabeth Watts – a former member of Norwich
Cathedral Girls’ Choir, a group founded by Neil Taylor – and Marcus Farnsworth,
their president.

I spoke to Marcus Farnsworth as he was appearing in opera in Boston,
USA. His link with SGS began when he was at Manchester University and a choral singer
at Manchester Cathedral alongside its then conductor, Stephen Williams. “He created
the role of assistant musical director for me in 2004,” he says. “They’re an
amazing bunch of people – always happy, incredibly enterprising and energetic.
Now I’m an advocate for the choir, I can help with contacts for soloists, and
it’s a feather in my cap, too, to be linked with them.”

Neil Taylor, recently organist at Sheffield Cathedral and now living in
Macclesfield, became conductor 10 years ago. He says: “I think it’s the passion
you can sense in the room when you work with them … and a determination to do
everything as well as they possibly can. There’s an unimpeded lack of fear, and
they’re willing to tackle anything.

“The thing that attracted me here was the variety in their repertoire
that had been brought by my predecessor – they’re up for anything, and that’s
really refreshing.

“They work with anyone from professional orchestras (as in the Brahms
Requiem) to school groups. Two weeks after the Brahms we’re doing a Christmas
concert (it’s on December 10 at Norbury Church, Hazel Grove) with Bradshaw Hall
Primary School Choir and the Youth Brass Band for Stockport.”

If you’d like to join in with St George’s Singers, there’s a Singing Day
for all comers on January 21 at St George’s Church, Poynton (see www.st-georges-singers.org.uk).